RALEIGH, N.C. — In a large classroom at the Duke Divinity School, 60 high school students clad in sneakers, shorts and T-shirts considered a question by a divinity school professor: What is Christian worship and what is its purpose?

Hands shot up across the room.

“It’s adoration of God,” said one teen.

“It connects us to where the church comes from,” said another.

“It’s building relationships with people around you,” said a third.

These teens know that by next week, they won’t be merely pondering the question, they’ll be planning and executing a real worship service. That’s just one of the Christian practices these rising high school juniors and seniors will take on during their two-week stay. They’ll visit nursing homes, sort donated clothes and prepare meals for sick children. But every morning they’ll study with some of the school’s leading theologians.

The Duke Youth Academy, a program financed by the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis, began Sunday. Now in its sixth year, the program brings together teens from across the United States who are interested in their faith and committed to deepening it. Some may decide to become ministers during their stay at Duke. Two such graduates from the 2001 program are now enrolled in the divinity school.

But most will be challenged to consider how they can live a purposeful Christian life.

“We’re not here to recruit 60 people for ordained ministry,” said Fred Edie, the director of the youth academy and a professor at the divinity school. “But we are asking them, ‘What am I called to? How can I best use my gifts? What life-path is God placing before me?’ ”

Most of the teens here are no strangers to Christianity. During their short lives they’ve spent many Sundays in church and are active in their congregations’ youth groups. The majority are Protestants from 15 denominations, but the group includes four Roman Catholics as well. They were chosen for their ability to wrestle with their faith. To apply, they had to write two essays, one about their spiritual journey and another describing how a book or movie has influenced their faith.

“Church is such a short time,” said Grant Collier, 17, a rising senior from Nashville, referring to the Sunday service. “You don’t have enough time to focus on it. It’s important for me to be knowledgeable about what I’m doing.”

Many are already clued in to the names and reputations of various faculty members. They were eager to hear what they have to say — especially Stanley Hauerwas, the faculty’s star professor, a Christian ethicist.

In his talk to the teens Friday morning, Hauerwas said he intended to tell them nothing was more destructive to Christianity than simply saying it was all about love. Jesus was about creating an alternative to the social order — one that requires hospitality to the stranger and forgiveness for the offender. This Christianity was far from being safe, he said. It was, in fact, dangerous.

“I hope to help them see what an intellectually demanding business theology is,” Hauerwas said.

The idea behind the Duke Youth Academy is to allow teens the experience of living in a closed Christian community such as a monastery. Like monks and nuns, they rise each morning to prayers and go to bed each night with prayers. They eat together and work together and are discouraged from keeping contact with the world outside. No e-mail or cell phones are allowed.

After breakfast on Monday morning, the group gathered in the choir section of Duke Chapel. Sitting on the formal benches in the soaring limestone cathedral, they read psalms, sang hymns and sat in silence. The Rev. Brian Hardesty-Crouch led the service, teaching the teens some new ways to encounter God, such as chanting and silent mediation.

After prayers, the students walked into the classroom for a lecture on one of the themes of the two-week program — baptism. Professor Edie asked them to list all those stories in the Bible that have to do with water. The list grew quickly. These young Christians know their Bible stories — from the Creation account where God separated the waters, to Revelation’s metaphorical references to Jesus as the water of life.

Then Edie challenged them to consider their own baptism, or future baptism, as a kind of immersion in those stories.

“When you’re baptized, you’re given a history,” Edie said. “Your future has a trajectory. You’re being given a new way of life.”

Elyse Martin, a 16-year-old from Cabin John, Md., said she was already immersed, metaphorically speaking.

“I couldn’t imagine life without God,” she said. “I couldn’t be happy if there wasn’t a God who cared for me and loved me no matter what happened.”